


L.O.V.E.

by liquid_dreams



Category: Naruto
Genre: Childhood Trauma, Complicated Relationships, Cuckolding, Emotional Baggage, F/M, Forbidden Love, Grief/Mourning, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Implied/Referenced Incest, Infidelity, Loneliness, Love, Love/Hate, M/M, Neglect, Past Relationship(s), Poor Life Choices, Post-Fourth Shinobi War, Random & Short, implied PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 13:58:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17705549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liquid_dreams/pseuds/liquid_dreams
Summary: A collection of four more or less short one-shots centered some time after the 4th Shinobi World War. Basically me grabbing canon by the throat like that Kermit meme.(4th Chapter is a small follow-up of my other Orochimaru/OC story)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Creative Liberty: Taken  
> OTPs: Questionable  
> Regrets: None
> 
>  **Theme Song** : And One - Get You Closer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited 2/09/19 after reading some ridiculously brilliant analysis of the (sad) way the story ended for Sasuke.

1) Sasuke

It was just as he always suspected. Killing Itachi brought no relief from the pain. Killing him twice made it worse. Sasuke felt that it was safe to say that, when he killed his aniki (once, twice), he also killed part of himself. Years later he'd be able to quantify it more accurately: Exactly half of him was dead. Sakura sensed it, he could tell. He didn't miss the fact that their marriage turned out to be a letdown for her. She'd never say it, because she loved him. He loved her, too. He thought. Well, sometimes he felt a flicker of affection for her at least, which was more than could be said for most people he knew.

Love. 

That word still, after all this time, first and foremost brought images of Itachi to his mind. His older brother as he'd been before the massacre. Smiling and waving him close. Poking his forehead with an affectionate smile. Before. Before. It was always before. Before he could even think he'd loved Itachi. His mother once told him how he'd always cry as a baby unless Itachi was holding him. 

After was worse than before. After he knew the whole ugly truth. Itachi never stopped loving him. He never stopped loving Itachi. After, Sasuke could only grasp at happiness. It was always fleeting, avoiding him like the plague. When Sarada was born he'd been happy. Every time he returned to his family he was happy. It was an abstract, fleeting sort of happiness that never lasted long and he chose to leave before they could notice. They did anyway. His girls weren't stupid. Love, he thought as he looked at the starry sky. Where are you now?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Himawari is the older sibling in this one. She also doesn't have whiskers or blue eyes. I know that's not canon. Shh.

 

 

 

2) Hinata

She kept the guilt at arm's lenght. Some days it was easier than others. As a housewife she was always busy. Then there were the dreaded politics. Clan politics, village politics. The latter were more tiresome. Both her and Naruto had been lobbying for ages to stop the use of branding as a control mechanism. The negotations with the council and clan heads stretched out forever as they were unable to reach a consensus. Other, more important matters frequently took presidency over the debate. She wasn't going to let it drop, though. Never. Not after it caused her and her loved ones so much anguish. Love, Hinata thought as she watched her oldest child doing katas in the backyard. Himawari took after her looks wise, but her cheerful personality was more like Naruto's. Probably. It was always hard to tell which behaviours were nature or nuture. Hinata hugged herself as a familiar bittersweet feeling overcame her. Himawari was so so precious to her, though she tried not to play favorites when dealing with her two children. She thought she mostly succeeded. Hinata lowered her eyes and squeezed them shut when they started to burn. Sometimes she saw Neji in her movements.


	3. Chapter 3

3) Sakura 

It was a constant battle that raged harder on some days than others. 

One of the warring factions was disappointment: In Sasuke, who refused to be the tender lover she'd always imagined he'd become if she only loved him enough. In her marriage, if one could call it that when her husband was absent 90 percent of the year. 

The other was duty: To her precious daughter, who needed at least one stable parent in her life to look to for support. To Sasuke, who was not to blame for his state of mind. He'd been victimized like the rest of his family, but unlike them he had to live with the weight of the past. Sakura knew that, though it was hard sometimes. Not to feel resentful of everything and anything Uchiha. The vicious thoughts ebbed when she looked at Sarada and smiled. 

After the war there had been no time to dwell on her thoughts. There had been so many injured that required her attention and expertise. When normalcy slowly returned to Konohagakure that was when it hit her. The death, the horror, the trauma. Sakura spent days shaking apart, curled up in her bed with no one to talk to. She'd felt like she was going crazy in the house she now lived in. The Uchiha compound was still a ghost town. It would take many many years to change that. Sasuke wanted to. She knew that. He made it his mission to rebuild his clan. Sarada was a start. He wanted a son. She knew that, too. It was absurdly funny, then, that he was never home to make it happen. In fact his absences became longer and longer. Love, Sakura thought faintly. It was the most wonderful shackle. It made her spend days just cleaning the large empty houses, keeping dust and spiderwebs at bay. Keeping them pristine for future generations of Uchihas. 

She met Kakashi by chance on an errand run. He hadn't aged much over the past decade. Still wearing a mask, still reading Icha Icha books. Or re-reading them, now that the author was dead. She wondered why they were so fascinating to him. 

"Hello Kakashi-sensei," she said with a grin.

He blinked at her and lowered the book. "Sakura. Long time no see."

"Yes. I've been busy at home and the hospital."

"I can only imagine. How is Sarada-chan?"

"Doing great. All her teachers sing her praises," Sakura said with a proud smile. 

"That's not surprising."

Out of spontaneous mood she asked him if he wanted to come over for diner sometime. He surprised her by saying yes. Perhaps he was just as lonely. It would be nice to have somebody to talk to again, Sakura thought. Naruto was busy with his job as Hokage and it hurt that they were rarely able to see each other anymore. Kakashi was no longer her teacher. It was a little odd. She wanted to know more about the man who played such a large part in shaping her adolescence. He'd always been busier with Naruto and Sasuke, though. They probably knew him better than she did. Sakura wanted, out of a feeling of being overlooked, to know him better, too. It was something to do. Something to pass time. Time that could stretch endlessly while she swabbed at spiderwebs in dark corners of empty houses. 

He surprised her again by coming over the very next evening and even more so by being an excellent conversation partner. Sarada looked a little weirded out, but quickly became curious. After she'd gone to bed they talked until early into the next morning. Sakura didn't even notice until he pointed it out to her. Intellectually stimulating conversations were so rare these days that she didn't want to let it end. Kakshi looked reluctant, too. His easygoing attitude made it easy to forget that he was also a genius. She asked him to come by again and he agreed all too readily. Sakura smiled when he nodded at her, his one visible black eye crinkling at the corner, and left. Soon he came by again. And again.

Love, Sakura thought one morning as she woke up in Kakashi's bed and glanced at the man reading a book besides her. Love was not as simple as it seemed.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if you think I should add this and "Great Minds" together as a series so it's clear that this chapter is a follow up of that story. Still unsure about it tbh.

4) Naomi

For some mystifying reason he liked taking baths with her. Oh well, this way she didn't have to feel the coarse stone texture of the bathtub against her back. Instead there was a warm body to lean on while she scrubbed her arms. Orochimaru was very, very clingy. Whether it was in bed, where he was always the big spoon and sometimes made it hard to fall asleep when his limbs were arranged around her in uncomfortable positions, or in the bath. Both of his arms were wrapped snugly around her middle, legs resting against hers. He'd helped her wash her hair again and was now apparently content with snuggling her. Not that he'd ever admit it. He'd probably flay her if she accused him of something as undignified as "snuggling". 

"Naomi," he said suddenly into her left ear, making gooseflesh break out on her arms. 

"Hm?"

"There is an experiment I need your help with, if you're amenable."

"Shoot," she muttered and shivered when she felt his nose run along the sensitive skin behind her ear. 

"It requires your full cooperation and might take a while," he murmured.

"Why so secretive?" She asked and turned her head to the side to glance at him.

Orochimaru's long hair was pinned up since he claimed he'd already washed it. He smiled at her mischievously, though somehow she got the impression that he was nervous. His emotions never showed on his face, so she had to do the bothersome work of trying to sense what he was feeling at any given time. It got easier with practice, though. He gently placed his right hand under her lower jaw, keeping her head firmly turned towards him. Naomi swallowed and smiled in confusion. It almost looked like he was ready to snap her neck if she said no. So it was something special? 

"It will not be easy at times."

Her heart jumped in her chest. Orochimaru sounded like he was trying hard to sound nonchalant. 

"Though I believe the results will be worth it."

"Results? As in, multiple?"

"I hope so," he murmured. 

As always when their gazes locked in intimate moments, his pupils dilated. Naomi's heart was pounding in her throat as she tried to divine his meaning. Stranger yet, she could feel his heartbeat against her back. It was, she counted the thumps, faster than average. Odd. Alarming. Orochimaru never got nervous, so what in the blazes was he planning?

"Is.. is it something important? Groundbreaking, perhaps?" She asked a little unsteadily. 

"Perhaps," he replied quietly and leaned in until their foreheads were touching. 

"You know I'll do anything you ask of me, right?" She murmured with a fond smile. 

"Human life," he murmured. "Will you help me create it?"

The breath hitched in her throat. "H-human life..?!"

"I would ask for your ovocytes, but.."

Her eyes widened. A full body shiver ran through her. Naomi swallowed hard and felt her eyes grow wet. 

"But why make it co-complicated, right?" She sobbed once and pressed a hand in front of her smiling mouth. 

"You agree?" He asked with a smile. 

"Of course," she sighed and closed her stinging eyes. "You know I'm yours. To do with as you please."

The hand left her jaw and wrapped back around her middle. Naomi leaned head head against his shoulder, feeling absolutely blissed out. 

"That's right."

He probably meant to sound smug, but it came out more relieved than anything. After eight years of a complicated, intense and sometimes harsh something between them it seemed like he was still afraid of rejection. She put her arms over his and linked their fingers. 

"I'm going to say it as often as you need to hear it, until you're convinced," she said in a jokingly threatening manner. 

"And what is that?" He murmured and nipped at her ear. 

"I love you. Oro-kun, I love you."

He shivered and accidentally bit down too hard. Naomi made a face and directed a portion of her massive chakra reserves to her bleeding ear. He licked it apologetically. Naomi started to twist around, disregarding the water sloshing over the rim of the tub, until she sucessfully turned around to face him. She looked into that beloved face and smiled softly. His golden eyes were fixed on hers in that unmoving way of his. She leaned in and kissed him softly. 

"I love you, Oro-kun," she murmured against his lips and glanced up at him through her lashes. "And yes, I want to have your babies."

His nostrils flared. He grinned, revealing two sharp fangs. "Should the experiment be a success you realize that there will be no escaping anymore, right?"

"What?" She made a face at him. "What are you talking about? Escape? From what?" 

"Me," he replied quietly. 

"Hah," she laughed and rested her arms on his shoulders. 

"What's so funny?" He asked with a sullen tone creeping into his voice. 

"Does it look like I'm a hurry to get away?" She asked lazily. "Right now, perhaps?"

His eyes narrowed a little. He didn't answer, which was a surefire sign that she got him there. Sometimes she suspected that he also had a list of things he hated. Admitting that he was wrong was probably a three, or even a two she mused. She gripped the rim of the tub behind him and drew her legs up so she could sit properly on his lap, spilling more bathwater onto the floor. Almost immediately she could feel his dick twitch with interest. Naomi didn't grin or smile, because he hated how easily it gave him away when he put such effort into masking his feelings. Instead she cupped his jaw and put their foreheads together. 

"No matter what you try you're not gonna get rid of me, understand?" She said sternly. 

"Is that a challenge?" He asked calmly. 

"No, it's a fact. Now shut up and kiss me." 

And he was all too happy to oblige.


End file.
